Bogaerts, Bradley struggling with first extended slumps of young careers

Saturday

May 17, 2014 at 9:55 PM

BOSTON — The youth movement is not going according to plan.

By TIM BRITTON

BOSTON — The youth movement is not going according to plan.

Through 42 games, Xander Bogaerts and Jackie Bradley, Jr. have displayed exactly why it's so challenging to go young in Major League Baseball. During a troublesome May, Bogaerts' average has dropped to .262, his on-base percentage to .366. His home run Saturday was just his second of the year. Bradley has hit an even .200 with a .301 on-base and a measly .296 slugging percentage.

The Red Sox expected growing pains. They didn’t expect them to be this painful.

After play Friday night, both Bogaerts and Bradley acknowledged their recent struggles. Bogaerts has been perplexed by his inability to hit pitches in his self-described “happy zone,” out over the plate.

“I’m missing too many pitches,” he said. “This is the big leagues. You can’t be missing so much.”

“He’s gotten away from the middle of the field,” Rodriguez said. “When he gets away from the middle of the field, he tends to cut his swing, and that’s when he’s missing those balls. When he’s staying through the middle and focusing on the big part of the field, the head of the bat stays through … and he’ll square those balls up.”

Bogaerts’ power has long been from the left-center gap to the right-field line. Rodriguez wonders if the Green Monster has proven a bit too tempting in the early-going for the shortstop.

“That wall is very dangerous,” he said. “It can easily get you away from what you’re trying to do. It does it to [Dustin Pedroia], and he’s been here for a long time.”

Bogaerts toppled that wall with his first Fenway homer Saturday, but that was on a pitch on the inner half.

“April was a solid month, what we expected,” manager John Farrell said. “And yet, the book gets out on every player around the league. They begin to exploit some things. It’s his turn now to readjust to the way that pitchers are pitching him. That’s part of the normal progression.”

Bradley has had similar issues at the plate, dating back to his big-league experience last year. The outfielder’s problems with fastballs in have been discussed ad nauseam, to the point that he began cheating in — and thus rolling over pitches on the outer half that he usually hits with authority the other way.

For a stretch in late April, Bradley was doing just that: In a four-game stretch late in the month, he had six hits, including four doubles and a triple. He has just two extra-base hits in 14 games since.

Bradley was candid when discussing how he feels at the plate after Friday’s loss.

“I’m lost,” he said. “I’m not getting the results that I want, and I’m sure it’s not the results they want …. You have to go back to the drawing board.”

The most concerning aspect of Bradley’s struggles has been the high number of strikeouts. Bradley has struck out 17 times in 14 May games. He’s striking out in nearly 30 percent of his plate appearances, a number more in line with Will Middlebrooks’ strikeout rate than with Bradley’s minor-league track record.

“This is someone that, in my view, in April was really making some strides with his approach,” Farrell said when discussing his decision to sit Bradley Saturday night. “And yet, in this month, things have kind of turned a little bit. We’re not down on his abilities. But I think we’ve got to recognize when some of that confidence gets a little bit shallow, we’ve got to give a chance to rebuild it.”

“It’s one of those things where I’m going through something I’ve never really been used to,” said Bradley. “I really prided myself on at least putting the ball in play. I normally didn’t strike out as much as I have the past few go-rounds. I’m still a work in progress. I’m going to continue to work and I’m going to get better.

“I’ve just got to keep weathering the storm.”

The same can be said, at the moment, for the Red Sox. The early-season growing pains from Bogaerts and Bradley, compounded by Will Middlebrooks’ struggles and time on the disabled list, have left Boston’s lineup much shallower than usual. The Red Sox could endure Middlebrooks’ offensive slumps last season; the other eight guys were hitting. It’s a lot tougher to endure a trio of simultaneous slumps.

Coming into Saturday, Boston’s sixth through ninth hitters this season are batting .217 with a .305 on-base percentage and a meager .313 slugging percentage. That adds up to a .618 OPS.

Last season, those same four spots in the lineup contributed a .261 average, .329 on-base percentage and .432 slugging. That’s an OPS of .762.

And so there are two questions the Red Sox have to answer, one more serious than the other. How much time do they have to absorb these struggles in the short run? And are they worth absorbing in the long one?

The first issue is aided for the time being by the American League East. With nobody running away in the division, Boston doesn’t need to markedly improve its current pace right now.

The second is more complicated and daunting to answer. Despite how well they are set up for the next few years, the Red Sox are also a team designed to win now. Jon Lester is a free agent, you know.

And so Boston has to consider whether its best chance of winning this season includes a left side with both Bogaerts and Middlebrooks and an outfield anchored in center by Bradley. Can they all be as good in October as the Red Sox will need them to be in order to repeat? If the Red Sox’s opinion on that question begins to waver, then change would necessarily follow suit.